Engineer Guide MkIII

[roughead]

Maybe this has changed since last I tried it, but doesn't the bot's snare aura break our blinds each time it updates? If so, this might be worth mentioning.

only breaks if it lands like snare only breaks mezz if it lands, doesn't land too often on red mobs since check is 180% NR and 35% lvl

[Luuv]

I think this works better than listing all offensive program

Not sure what you mean. What I meant is that it is not clear to everyone that the snare aura works as an offensive nano. So we have 2 nanos that kinda cancel each other out, unless you fight, like roughead says, mobs that you cannot land the snares on. Or wait. How does that work, anyway? Does it check my TS/SI every time it pulses? Or does the TS/SI at the time of casting it count? I just saw that the Attack skills aren't the same as the nanoskills required to cast it, btw. And it generates aggro each pulse. Aggro on what? The bot who the pulse comes from, or the engineer? I suddenly feel kinda stupid, but I rarely ever used the snare because of various issues. Now I understand it even less. Hope this guide makes it all clear.

[zartosht]

I think this answers the question better than listing all offensive programs in the game.

The information is all there, except the fact that crat calms are not broken, which I added.

Imho, as a noob you do not know exactly what is an offensive program or how to check the fact. Plus, is a reflect shield an offensive program or not? Does it break the blinds? What about the damage shield?

Moreover, reading the subsequent comments about our blinds and other auras cancelling each other or not, it seems to me that even more seasonned players are still struggling to agree on what breaks what and when and how.

A list of programs (or a list of nanoline at least) along with recommendations would be very helpful. Such as: "If you want to rely on your blinds, do not run XXX and YYY." or "If in a team with an NT who is calming, be sure to cancel ZZZ or WWW."

The reason I insist on being much more specific in this guide on this subject is because of teaming. Many times, while in a team, somebody will say "who <un-mezzed> <un-calmed> <aggroed> that mob?" and somebody will say "It must be that gawdamnd engi with his <blinds> <snare> <whatever>." And then you get kicked. Well I would love to be able to not make the mistake to start with and then if the team-members' statement is plainly wrong to be able to direct them to the guide so that they can check for themselves.

[muha]

Not sure what you mean. What I meant is that it is not clear to everyone that the snare aura works as an offensive nano. So we have 2 nanos that kinda cancel each other out, unless you fight, like roughead says, mobs that you cannot land the snares on.

If it's not clear that the snare aura is an offensive aura, and it might cancel the blind, it is worth mentioning, so I added it.

Or wait. How does that work, anyway? Does it check my TS/SI every time it pulses? Or does the TS/SI at the time of casting it count? I just saw that the Attack skills aren't the same as the nanoskills required to cast it, btw.

I don't know. If someone can enlighten me I might add it to the guide, but I think not every small detail needs to be in the guide, so maybe not.

And it generates aggro each pulse. Aggro on what? The bot who the pulse comes from, or the engineer? I suddenly feel kinda stupid, but I rarely ever used the snare because of various issues. Now I understand it even less. Hope this guide makes it all clear.

I believe no one knows exactly how agro from anything a pet does reflects on the pet owner, and definitly not how it works with snares. I use Snares most of the time just for the AR bonus. The only cases where I don't run it is where we have a non-crat calmer, and when blinding is important to me (e.g. soloing big mobs)

Imho, as a noob you do not know exactly what is an offensive program or how to check the fact. Plus, is a reflect shield an offensive program or not? Does it break the blinds? What about the damage shield?

The guide says "will break on a single point of damage", but if it isn't clear that this includes reflect and damage shields, I added it.

...A list of programs (or a list of nanoline at least) along with recommendations ...

I have read again what the guide says about the subject, and I think it is detailed enough:

The snare program the bot has can attract adds and break calms (except those made by crats).
...
The Blind program and other offensive auras we have also break calms (except those made by crats).

(regarding blinds)
will break on a single point of damage, including damage from your own reflect and damage shields. They also break if another offensive program lands on the target, such as a debuff. Note especially that the snare aura that runs on the bot counts as an offensive program, so each time it pulses it might cancel the blind.

[Luuv]

Main problem I had with the stupid auras and calms and such is, that if you look at the nanos on auno.org, it is so hard out figure out how this works. The snare and blind pulses have the flags "Buff Nano" and "Open Flag". It doesn't say "offensive" anywhere. While the snares, blinds and calms list a "Chance of break on attack" (not: break on damage), "Chance of break on debuff" (not: break on nanos and auras) and a "Chance of break on nano" (not: break on nuke). The difference between crat calms and other calms seems to be that they have a chance to break on debuff of 0%. So our auras seem to be handled as debuffs. It also means that the two auras can cancel out each other, although the blind only has a small chance of breaking the snare.
Figuring this all out by yourself is hard. Half of what I said is probably wrong or will change again in the next patch. The blind aura for example changed twice in the 15 patch series and once in the 14. Same with the snare pulse. I know I may be sacrificing some power by rarely using my snares, but I hate to get into discussions with people. I sure don't want to argue snares with a crat in a pen mish that thinks we should all cancel our reflects since they break calms.

Also: Only the crat single calms are safe from our auras. The crat area calms break 100% on each pulse. Since some crats tend to use these often in AI raids, it may be better to talk to the crat in a raid.

Muha should add a warning to the guide: "Warning! Playing an engie can cause serious headaches!".

[Rustybolts]

Also, it should be mentioned that the effectiveness of the blinds is directly related to the level of Evade-Clcs. This is currently not mentioned at all.

It's not just close combat Z. It's whatever evade the weapon of the opponent checks against. Not all mobs use evade, some use all three depending on distance.

[Johael]

Does the Clicksaver link in this post work?

http://arpa3.net/ao/clicksaver.html for Kimi's 2.4 - link points to 2.3x which no longer works.

[Xaijun]

Under Buffing Weapons, the links still go to AO Database ^^

[muha]

7.3 - all of these weapons are rollable, except for the soft pepper pistol. The SPP is the rare mission drop. (you claim the waltzing queen is the rare drop, but I seem to roll it extremely often.

The word "drop" usually means "drops randomly from mobs" as opposed to "rollable", so you got me a bit confused with that post. I added to the guide which one is rollable (all but SPP). The SPP is already mentioned to be a chest item, by saying it is a "rare mission drop" do you mean it is rollable? The waltzing queen is a rare drop and rollable.

10.5.3 Blinds - It should be mentioned that the blinds break some calms, which can be "hazardous" in certain groups.

Section 10.5.3. is a subsection of Section 10.5 - Offensive auras. All auras break calms, and this is mentioned at the begining of the section.

Also, it should be mentioned that the effectiveness of the blinds is directly related to the level of Evade-Clcs. This is currently not mentioned at all.

+

It's not just close combat Z. It's whatever evade the weapon of the opponent checks against. Not all mobs use evade, some use all three depending on distance.

+

Then again it does help alot against higher level mobs, since it allows you to solo many difficult bosses on both RK and SL, and it also helps alot in alien raids, making your evade-class teammates even harder to hit

The effect of this nanoprogram is clear: it lowers the attack rating of your opponent by 1.2k (the top one)

Maybe leave it up to the reader to decide when it's useful and when it isn't

I mentioned the dependency on evades, and took Silv's advice to just state the effect, and let the user decide if it's usefull or not

http://arpa3.net/ao/clicksaver.html for Kimi's 2.4 - link points to 2.3x which no longer works.

The clickserver version I linked to is working fine with the latest patch, is well maintained, and most importantly, supplies the code and follows the GPL license CS is released under. As Kimi refuses to supply her code, and does not follow the GPL license, I will not link to her version, and I will recommend to anyone I can NOT to use this version. For more information: http://aodevs.com/index.php/topic,22.0.html

Under Buffing Weapons, the links still go to AO Database ^^

Fixed

Main problem I had ....
Also: Only the crat single calms are safe from our auras. The crat area calms break 100% on each pulse....

Added

[Luuv]

Comment about the sample implant layout:

Your sample imlpant layout uses STA and AGL, yet you propose Evade/Agl/Duck feet, which require AGL to implant. Leave out the Duck cluster, and it is STA. This way you can usually get in a higher feet, since you can first buff stamina and get in all the (stamina-based) +agl imps. Then you have more +agl to get in the agility-based imps. But maybe I am just missing something here.

Edit: Just saw this was just sample imps, not about twinking in stuff at all. Forget it then, post was kinda pointless.

[Jellyfunk]

Nice!

A few things you might have been saving for the PvP section, but they affect PvM peeps as well, so they might be worth adding somewhere else:

• Obviously, your first accidental four hour tower flag is a rite of passage for any pet class, but you might want to put in some tips for travelling cross country with your pet.
• Mentioning that offensive and pet snare auras get you flagged - Since the gas change, I've had to explain to a few tiny engies why they got squished when they zoned into Borealis with blinds or pet snares running. I still have to make a hurried stab at the aura canceller nano every coupla weeks come to think of it
• Also, had a guildmate a while back almost in tears because of some griefer hassling his pets outside MMD - might be worth mentioning the mechanics of what's happening there, and how to deal with it.

...and nitpicking: Holy paragraphs, batman! Might be easier to read if you closed the spacing up a bit

[Luuv]

Thoughts about the armor section:

There is some very nice and cheap low armor that should be mentioned:

Saboteur armor - low ACs, but +HP, which I deem more useful, since we have AC buffs and I prefer HP over AC when I get hit rarely, plus it has some +TS which is nice to balance MC while still using imps

Shapeshifter's Vest - Helps a bit with HP and with better AC buffs, also nice ability buffs

Crepuscule Armor - Low Extermination Crepuscule Armor can easily be farmed and gives a few points in nanoskills, which can mean a better bot. Pants, Sleeves and Skinchip give +TS, Gloves, chip, boots and jacket are +MC.

Control Unit Sleeves - for the +TS
Control Unit Vest - for the +MC

[muha]

Nice!

A few things you might have been saving for the PvP section, but they affect PvM peeps as well, so they might be worth adding somewhere else....

...and nitpicking: Holy paragraphs, batman! Might be easier to read if you closed the spacing up a bit

I agree, the issue of flags should be added. So this goes to the TDL (To Do List).

As for the spacing between paragraphs, I inherited it with the guide and I am not going to go to all that effort to change it.

Thoughts about the armor section...

TDL

[CaptainFrank]

It seems the Tir School of Engineering is no more...

404 Not Found

[muha]

I added the AI trimmers and the locations of other trimmers.

[Saetos]

The paragraph after (or slightly before?) the list of starter items an engineer gets mentions clicking the SKL button to open up the window. The button is... kinda gone now

[muha]

The paragraph after (or slightly before?) the list of starter items an engineer gets mentions clicking the SKL button to open up the window. The button is... kinda gone now

Thanks, fixed

[Dieglesa]

Havnt read the lot yet. but Im going to, Mind if i copy this and make a PDF file for personal use ;o

<3 from Diegma

[muha]

Havnt read the lot yet. but Im going to, Mind if i copy this and make a PDF file for personal use ;o

<3 from Diegma

Why would I mind what you do for personal use? I'm sorry I haven't had time to update it yet, I got so many open projects.

[Novafox]

I skimmed through the guide and I think a couple things should be changed/mentioned/noted.

Section 3.4 Command range was changed in a recent patch, which I believe made it the same as maximum range. Although, I'm certain there are some strange bugs where pets often ignore orders based on the range of things. I'll start another thread about this, though.

Section 8.2.2 If I'm not mistaken, those trimmers are still bugged, giving your pet a ridiculously large, and empty, HP bar. It makes the 217 slayer have the bugged bar at least, though I tried the 200 slayer and it seemed to work appropriately. The bugged bar seemed to fix itself when running out of range, though, but until then, the bot is effectively rooted since it has an empty HP bar.

Section 8.2.3 The Max QL of the Improved actuators trimmer can be higher now, thanks to new trimmer casings, so you might update that.